I have a multifuel coal/wood fire in living room for many years. One evening I filled it up with coal but it wouldn't start to burn properly (due to lack of draught even with front door and windows open!). After 3 tries all evening I gave up and went to bed. Was woken up at 3am by a noise - it was the CO detector! The coal had been on a 'slow burn' and due to no draught had filled the room with CO. Opened all windows and raked out the coals. I was very glad I bought the detector - only problem was it was REALLY LOUD and there seemed to be no way to turn it off! I had to cover it with several cushions and go hunting for the manual (you have to stick the supplied pin through a hole in the back). Now I tape the pin to the back of it in case it ever happens again (which it never has).

With high ceilings, a ceiling fan running slowly in reverse brings the heat down.

I added a weather compensator to my boiler which cost under £100 (BAXI) and my gas usage dropped by 10%. I also added in a smart multi zoned radiator heating control system (Drayton Wiser) and this has cut it down by another 30%. With the cost of energy increasing and seeing 40% it was the 2 best decisions I have made.

Brilliant video, love the walk through format. Roger is an exceptional presenter and his knowledge, experience and practicality is second to none. Put on another jumper! Brilliant, stop walking round in the winter in a T shirt and shorts with the thermostat maxed out. Another great video from Skill Builder.

amazing video roger, you could have been walking around my house for all the problems it shares. really keen on the underfloor heating/floor insulation idea now i know it's an option :)

this man is humble, hardworking and trustworthy

Great vid again Roger. Just refurbed my front room with suspended floor. Put celotex between joists and replaced plank floor with 22mm tongue and groove floor panels to get rid of those drafts between planks. Beginning to wish now I had put underfloor heating but maybe later. Also had new double glazed windows fitted as they were over 20 years old. Think I had my monies worth. I run my central heating on a default setting of 16 deg but use radiator thermostats to control each room radiator. Yes I think we need to put more clothes on, we didn't get fat years ago due to using our body fat to keep warm, I remember well going to bed shivering with ice on the inside of windows, happy days. Sorry don't want to make this too long but you mention about exterior wall insulation will need to contact you re this if that's ok

Lots of good advice, I have helped a number of people save money in listed buildings with some of these tips. Plus I used stormguard glazing film on one property, magnaglaze perspex secondary glazing on sash windows, sempatap for solid walls that can't have external wall insulation, thermal lining for curtains and radiator reflector panels and shelves.

It'd be interesting to see the difference between a poor and well insulated house via a thermal imaging camera which are cheap nowadays as an adapter for a smartphone. The general consensus is that heat loss occurs mainly via the roof and windows which is why double glazing, floor/loft insulation via carpets etc is so effective. Even in a well insulated house, the ground floor will always be a few degrees lower than the loft as a consequence of the inevitable temperature gradient.

For the dog door, you could have flaps on both sides, or a textile or flexible plastic on one of the sides (i.e. the inside, in the example in the video), to help insulate the door even more. or the windows, I use roller blinds, in my case they are semi-blackout, meaning that they do let some light through (and I chose them to be orange, for that warm light), which also acts like a second glaze, to help keep the warmth from escaping during the night. They are not airtight, so there is still some loss there, but it's a lot better than having the windows without them. In a pinch, I have seen people use clingwrap with scotch tape (packing tape) to better insulate their windows in the winter, especially for rooms they do not use. I even saw people use scotch/packing tape and aluminium foil (tinfoil) for the rooms they do not use, and even people turning semi-blackout roller blinds into blackout blinds by scotch-taping perforated aluminium foil (aluminium foil in which they mader a few tiny/small holes with a meat mallet, to have more points which are glued to the other surface) to their semi-blackout roller blinds. If you have a lawn or a walkway you can change, or even a bit of land or a few walls, you can use metal sheets as mirrors which to reflect more sunlight onto the house in the winter. You can use fresnel mirrors, instead of curved mirrors, to save up on space. Fresnel mirrors are what could be called compound mirrors, using multiple smaller mirrors to get a similar effect to a bigger window, at the price of optical precision (i.e. not usable for getting a good mirror image). Many people install them on the walls, angled instead of parallel, to concentrate sunlight on the house in winter, and on the roof (with the solar water heater) in the summer.

An old house of mine had timber suspended floors, with draughts that sometimes lifted the carpets, but with little beauty on the floorboards. I removed all the skirting, laid flooring grade polystyrene - sealed all round and between, so that no draughts or even an ant could get through anywhere - then laid 22mm chipboard flooring over the top, throughout the whole house. Refit the skirtings, new carpets, etc, and that made a huge difference. I could lay on the floor and within minutes you could feel the reflected warmth. Unconventional, but worked excellently. Secondly, I fitted shelves above the rads, butted up to the curtain level, which made the radiators work far better, creating better distribution of rising warmth and stopped the downdraughts from the windows. Unconventional again, but also very effective.

For zonal heating on the boiler we use a smart thermostat with smart trvs they cost but it allows individual rooms to call for heat rather than all the rooms because the central wall thermostat calls for it. This allows the unused rooms to be switched to low during the day and heat only as and when needed.

Top advice Roger. Good to get some impartial advice form someone who isn't trying to sell something. Now there's a change. My ex mother in law once asked me to visit while a supposed independent surveyor called to advise her on damp patches on her ground floor walls and he tried to sell her a cellar tanking system.

I used to do the shrinking plastic double glazing trick in Edinburgh in my student days. Good advice it really works.

Thank you for the useful advice Roger. I can highly recommend the Stormguard secondary glazing film. It is as cheap as chips and I used it on single glazed windows for a few years before we got our kitchen extension and the effect was very noticeable. We had it over the winter months and took it off for the summer to get a flow of air through and it was so cheap, I redid it the following winter.

You can get programmable thermostatic radiator valves to set the temperature and on and off times for each room as an easier alternative to zone valves and repiping etc

Like to see real professional guy explaining important things to people.Great and good job, thx a lot for tips !

Fantastic video, Roger, thank you. Loads of brilliant tips - especially the temperature setting for a condensing boiler. I need to dial mine back. Another Skill Builder smash. Keep up the good work. Thank you👍👍👍

nice one .. lots of good tips and advise .. thank you

It is amazing to see the difference in standards between UK heating and cooling attitudes and practices and those elsewhere. It's like the whole purpose of designing homes in the UK was to make residents uncomfortable and keep them poor, until lately. Some great points, but also so much opportunity for better. Any home could be made NetZero, even in the UK. With all that heat flowing to those high ceilings and into the insulated attic, there's some point to using the attic space as a heat reservoir for a hot water heat pump. Remove the moisture from the attic air, recirculate that heat, extend the life of the structure. Insulate the roof, not the ceiling, and use a switchable vent so your hot water heat pump can cool your living spaces on those formerly infrequent heatwaves. Of course ground source has advantages, where feasible.

Hi Roger, you haven't mention the programmable radiator valves. I have installed 10 of them in my house and they are programmed to heat the rooms we use when we use them. They aren't cheap (I use Hive) and this is the first winter I have had them in but the house is defiantly more comfortable especially since both my wife and I work from home and our working areas the spare bedrooms and areas we would not occupy normally. It's great to have the bedroom and bathroom heated for an hour before we get up without having to heat the whole house.

I have had two old Georgian houses with sash windows and in both have had them refurbished and insulated beads added using proper company as invariably new cills were need in areas, plus for Listed status we needed to use like for like glass panes. (£70 per pane vests about £5 🙁). Did it make a massive saving on heating?, well a little I guess but just to able to open the sashes was nice together with new safety locked was definitely a bonus. Not hearing them rattling when it’s windy was a joy. Interestedly we have also added plantation shutters (originals painted and screwed into oblivion) and these have worked as additional draft proof. The temperature differential from in between the gap is upwards of 5’c to 7’c overnight and thus positive

Very interesting and educational 👍. I remember being able to pull myself up into a loft, 30 years ago

Absolutely brilliant thank you. I manage a single glazed rental property and so much of this was helpful

The best videos come from this channel. Honest.

Rockwool is the way to go. I use woven garden fabric stapled to the bottom of the joist which allows water to fall through should you drop water and air can move so no condensation surface. Works a treat stops all drafts and the floor is no longer cold. Great video, very informative and entertaining.

Great video Roger, enjoyed that one...I think there could be more of these videos going into a bit more depth on some of the points you mentioned. We recently 1. Took out all of our old flooring including the joists. 2. Dug 50 cm below floor height 3. Put in 50 cm of "foam concrete", the specialist stuff we used was approx 400 kg per M3, and then installed floor heating on top of that.....what a difference that makes !!

Brilliant video - about to renovate top to bottom so some great tips. I have a Single Brick house with high ceilings so I like the underfloor idea. I was at a house once who had the wet system - got so hot, couldn't sit on the floor and then took an age to reduce temperature. Assume just setting the right temp is key to underfloor wet systems.

Lovely to hear good advice from someone who knows his onions. Also not interested in making a fast buck but a "How To" fix on the cheap; we'll done Roger, you can work for me any old time.

Commonly in Washington State where I grew up we used use fire place inserts to utilize the heat from the fire to radiate into the room. It made a great difference in using the wood more efficiently.

Good practical advice that considers how people actually use their homes. I like the jumper option the best 😁

Good one Roger - it would be good to cover the ways of improving wall insulation, external and internal, pros/cons/illustrative costs and the different material options

nice video Roger, and you mentioned the best form of insulation right at the end, putting a jumper on!

Brilliant advice and entertaining at the same time Roger,many thanks.Since my wife has started working from home in basement kitchen,i decided to get smart radiator thermostats so when I'm at work I can keep the kitchen at a healthy temperature for her lol..i dial down the rest of the rooms but I'm wondering if it puts a strain on the combi boiler(in Glasgow so it can be non condensing) if too many radiators are turned down low.Main door tenement flat with only kitchen downstairs.

I would recommend a system like drayton wiser which effectively allows you to zone off every radiator or room. We allow the unused rooms to fall to 17c and then either manually boost those rooms as they are used or program the system to turn up the temperature at the times required to a comfortable temperature. There are other systems on the market but I've found the Drayton system to be good and well supported. Batteries in the radiator valves need replacing about once every 12 months, 2xAA.

Tip Rodger if you have a Condensing Boiler check the return temperature ie the temperature of the water returning to the boiler. My condensing Boiler was a replacement for an older boiler. Boiler control on the front set the output of heating water to 75deg so the return was at about 55 to 57 deg ie a 20 deg drop. At this return temperature to boiler hardly condenses , by reducing boiler output to 60 deg in autumn the return temperature back to boiler is 40deg and you get maximum condensing which could increase efficiency by 5 to 10 %. The boiler will run longer but at a lower burn rate of reduced gas consumption . In the winter I found I needed to increase output temperature to 65deg if really cold. I only run heating in morning for 2 hours and evening for say 4-5 hours , but if you run your heating all day this reduction in output will save quite a lot of gas and save damage to boiler caused by cycling were boiler shuts down due to a high return temperature. NONE of this applies if your boiler is NOT a condensing boiler as with these the return temperature needs to be above the condensing due point of 55 deg. Brought a cheap temperature meter and taped to return pipe to monitor temperature of return water. You can also reduce the hot water temperature on the boiler if a combination boiler but don’t go below say 50 deg for safety.

Central heating...PAH! In our flat in the 60's, we had a one bar electric fire in the living room; that's it. My mum would light two gas rings on to take the chill off the kitchen before my brother and I would run to (from bed) to get dressed for school. We had old wonky "Crittal" windows and in the winter, the snow would blow in through the gaps and settle on the tiled cill (inside), it didn't melt either because it was so cold in our bedroom...aah, the good ol' days? Right, where's that bloody thermostat?

Most informative. Thank you.

Those zone valves look like the old solenoid operated type. I replaced mine some time ago with motor on/motor off valves which don't use electricity all the time they are open. They must have saved a reasonable amount over the 10 years they have been in place, and it was a fairly simple swap once I figured out where to connect the wires. Best to do it when the system is being drained down for some other reason.

Outstanding upload, thank you.

High ceilings in Arizona make sense. It gets up to 115° F in summer. In winter we use ceiling fans to push the warm air down.

Shutters are great, the FRENCH of course have windows that open inwards in most houses. You see the slatted shutters on a lot of french houses which keep air coming in during the warmer months but stop too much direct sun, so the house is cool. In winter shutter keep the heat in as you say. You dont see many window cleaners in France! Another great video.

Double glazing seals can also be replaced for people who have it and notice drafts. I've just done mine, 20 odd your old wooden windows, can't afford to replace them just now so spent 100 quid on the correct profile seal and replaced them. Made a substantial difference, a couple of the windows were quite bad.

You're the man Roger. Love your videos

Loads of great info - thanks!

A superb video ,so many of my questions answered

One trick to adjust thermostatic valves - on a day where you find the house has the perfect temperature go down close to the valves so you can hear even slight hiss from water flow at the valve. adjust to where it just open up and then a slight turn back to close the valve. this way you then balance out all your valves and they should start warming up the room when ever temperature get below. and doing this to all radiators will also get them even and you will get better efficiency in the system - relying on the printed scale is not the same as the final temperature in the room.

Plenty of good advice, cheers roger.

Great video could you do a video on pellet stoves for heating/ hot water just about to buy a house on bottled lpg and looking at alternatives . Cheers

Hi Roger brilliant video again, what is the best way to insulate a concrete kitchen floor. Thanks

Have you looked at individual programmable radiator valves? We have iTemp Terriers on all but the living room rad as the thermostat is in there since we are in there most of the time. Curtains above rads? Not great. Put a shelf over the rad to stop most of the heat going behind the curtains. I insulate both flow and return pipes right up to the rads and the hot water pipes to taps

Excellent Vid Roger thanks

Hi Roger, in this video you talk about installing underfloor heating on the underside of a raised floor joist. Can you advise the products that you would use to do this and the method if the product does not describe it itself?

Excellent information thank you regards john

I’m about to move into a house that has a full size basement so the house (living area) floors are concrete slats and tiled on top. You can see from the basement the concrete slats, and they are fully exposed. What would be the best solution for insulating the floor in the living areas? Would expanding foam be a good idea? Spraying it on the basement ceiling?

I second underfloor heating its amazing, however I'd do what I did and strip the rafters out, type 1 and concrete the floors, 100mm pir screed and underfloor ftw. Strongly disagree with the single glazing. We had a very small window in the bathroom which I blocked out with pir as a temporary measure. difference is night and day. it was literally like walking outside in there and now it's like the rest of the house. lol it was that bad in there condensation was dripping off the walls and now is as dry as a bone plus way hotter.

Some great tips. I have my new boiler set at 80 degrees for the radiators. Soon as I wake up it's getting turned down to 60 and see how we get on. Also I never knew under floor heating can be done through a gas boiler. Will be checking prices for installation. Any tips in my research or anything in my comment you can add to please?

Some excellent advice as ever.

There are 2 kinds of radiant floor slabs I am aware; low mass concrete slab over a wood floor system and high mass concrete usually slab on grade. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps you could discuss these.

Roger, what are your thoughts on using frozen ice packs placed over the sink to remove moisture from a house? Ive been doing it all week so i can keep the windows closed and save on heating.

Love it when Roger preachs!

super great tips.... work through them one by one... :)

Hi skill builder what do you think of infrared heating panels - we have a house built in 2010 and is all electric and we are looking to supplement the underfloor wet system which is run by an external 5kw air sourced heat pump Thank You

Hi thank you for the excellent video, what are your thoughts on thermal paint for making a house efficient? Or Wallrock Thermal Liner, any thoughts? Thanks very much again!

The open fire I have warms up the chimney stack and the upstairs bedrooms benefit from it.

Love your videos Roger..what's your opinion on infra red heating panels as an alternative to conventional heating (radiators etc.)?

@Skill Builder I've had an extension done to one of my outbuildings on my property which has slightly suspended wooden flooring. I have filled it with sheep's wool and then put a layer of a dpc similar material on before putting the wooden floorboards (mostly) on. However the sheep wool underneath is now somewhat damp and is not drying out even though there is some ventilation and really warm sunny whether. Is it possible to stuff too much insulation in and then the air can't flow very well around the room? Our sheep wool is starting to smell a little mouldy too.

a ventilator on the sealing does also the heat down with the high sealings..

Letterbox flaps and keyhole covers help too.

Excellent video, 40 years in the trade haven’t seen a better presentation. Only one anomaly, Gap between panes of glass needs to be smaller not larger for better heat insulation. A larger gap

Excellent video Roger and very informative. The UK is going to be in for a real shock unless we switch on quickly to "acceptable" house heating methods, the new innovations are going to be expensive and inefficient, woolly jumper sales are going to rocket! We enjoy your posts and style greatly, thanks all the best.

Good presentation.

Roger, I’d love your views on my house, room in roof setup and the upstairs is freezing in winter and roasting in summer. Once heating goes off the temp upstairs plummets. Would be happy to share the full picture of the setup. Only been in a year but need to get this sorted

Hi Roger, have you ever looked at the ' hot water on demand' taps like quooker and quettle? I have a long run from the boiler to the kitchen sink and it always feels very wasteful letting the tap run to get up to temperature and then knowing that when I turn it off I've heated up a lot of water that will just sit in the pipe. Another great video by the way. Thanks

brilliant vid great to have a guy come in and know what he is talking about

spitting out facts m8, subbed. greetings from belgium

Great tips there Roger, 👍👍could you just explain what the difference is between a condensing boiler and combi compared, to a conventional one.

you could do a similar video for a smaller house slightly different issues , my house is 960s timber framed ?

I enjoyed that so thanks Rodger. My only issue is with log fires; these have been found to throw a lot of particulates out into the room and that isn't great for your health.

Hi Roger, another great video to prompt discussion and pick up tips from all the trades. On loft insulation worth mentioning insulation over spotlights and cables. Many installers just lay across cables but my understanding is that the electrical Regs do not recommend the practice? Any thoughts on this one? Keep up the good work.

Good video Thanks for info I have a question is it possible to install underfloor with a wood burning stove country cottage style no oil or gas Thanks in advance Rodger

Thank you : )

Roger, can you solve a problem of condensation I have? I have a plastic garden shed which continually has huge amount of condensation dripping of the plastic roof, especially in the winter. There is no heating inside and it is all plastic single skin with small perspex windows. What is the cause and how can I stop it as the dripping condensation is damaging the flooring boards? Many thanks

Thank You :) 💙🌼

In a modern centrally heated house an open fire must be a net cooling rather than heating device. Great for ventilation, not so good for heat conservation - most of the draft from the gaps in the floorboards is going up the chimney. With a wood-burning stove, when the door's closed there's little draft from the flue when the fire's not lit.

Can you talk about ceiling fans on a low setting as a method to mix the temperature-stratified air in a room. Does it work? Is it worth getting out my summer fan to use this winter?

Roger, thanks for another great video, can i ask, what is the white paint on the basement walls in this video? i have it on mine and its all coming off, i just wondered what it is? and if i can just use KA Tanking Slurry over the top of it? my basements damp, but its not flooding or anything, just a lot of moisture, i was going to install some vents to get some airflow down there, and also tank the walls and floor to see if that help. but this paint which is coming off the walls im interested to know what it is? thanks

I have a low wattage dehumidifier (designed for trickle use over-wintering caravans). Given that we are going to have a cooler house this winter so the temperature will be closer to the dew point, is this electrical method more cost-effective than gas heating to get higher temp method to stop condensation and mould?

Great video. 👍 on the money! 👏👏

I reckon I've just found my new favourite channel. 👍

Wish everyone warm winter

Open Fire heating Room - as opposed to going up the chimney. Use 50mm pipe as your fire grate - back and top in a "Square C" shape the size of your firebox. For example an 18" wide open fire would have 8 x 2" pipes taking air from below the fire, being heated by the fire and dumping hot air at the top just before the smoke goes past them up the flew.

Great video Rodger 👍 Have you or can you do a video on Water Softeners please

Can boiler stove's external air supply duct be vented vertically through the loft area and outside ?

Great video 👍 Can you have “too much” loft I insulation? I have 400mm at the moment and worried that if I add more it could introduce condensation.

Roger, re-glaze all those windows with Pilkington Spacia, very thin vacuum double glazing that will fit in those ancient sash windows and have U values comparable to modern thick double glazing, you have to wait a while for it though, only made in Japan.

Installing underfloor heating is very expensive - why I am not going for a heat-pump system - as you advised in a previous video?!

Would anyone know the following~ I am about to relag my loft with good quality rockwool I am also considering before the rockwool goes down is running YBS Airtec Reflective Double Insulation across the loft side of the ceiling up and over the ceiling joists and staple it to the joists then adding the rockwool. Is there any practical reason why I couldn't do this, obviously cut around any electrical work.

I put a heavy curtain across my front door.thermal curtains in every room.closed rooms not being used and moved some of the furniture into used rooms,I bubble wrapped. side windows.Placed a pile if free neespapers in most used room,installed thicker carpet underlay.I got a £250 refund on my heating bill.SIMPLES.

yes, you can. use a Zigbee remote radiator thermostats. and insulate those pipes in the basement or boiler room, no need to warm the basement or boiler room. If you need a warm basement put in a radiator and insulate the pipes.